Our 2009-10 Colloquium Series: Preparing Students for Life Beyond K-12

The purpose of the Learning Policy Center Colloquium Series is to create an informed dialogue between researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and university students around timely national and local education policy questions. To view live webcasts for any events, click link indicated below at the time of each event (all are listed for Eastern Standard Time).

Talk Description: Latinos are the largest and fastest growing racial/ethnic minority in the U.S. Yet their record of college completion is significantly below that of any other major group. The consequences not only for the Latino community but for the nation are enormous. Many existing social and educational policies either ignore or exacerbate the problems that this community faces. Professor Gándara will discuss the current condition of education for Latino students in the U.S. and offer some suggestions for what we might be doing to improve it. She will also...

The lecture will focus on engineering quality academic and social opportunities for urban school students in the face of significant structural barriers including organizational tendencies to treat learning as a discrete set of isolated events. Examples and models will be drawn from mathematics, science, engineering, and technology (METS) research and development. The costs and benefits of success will be highlighted.

Abstract: All around us people are learning with the aid of new technologies: children are playing complex video games, workers are taking online courses to get an advanced degree, students are taking courses at commercial...

Alan Lesgold is professor and Dean of the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh and also professor of psychology and intelligent systems.His talk began by noting that, at some level, virtually every American recognizes that our schools are not preparing our children adequately for citizenship and a productive life in the 21st century. Within this context, Alan discussed (i) the nature of productive work in a world where computers can do any task we fully understand, (ii) the implications of this reality for schooling,...

From 1999 to 2002 Richard Rothstein was the national education columnist of The New York Times. His recent book, Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right (Teachers College Press, 2008, http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/books_grading_education) was the basis for his talk. Rothstein argues that we should hold public schools accountable for effectively spending the vast funds with which they have been entrusted. But instead of grading a school's progress in just math and reading (No Child Left Behind), we...

Michael Cohen is a nationally recognized leader in education policy and standards-based reform. Michael's talk began by noting that many young people earn a high school diploma but lack the fundamental academic skills to be prepared for postsecondary education and 21st century careers. One of the key contributing factors is the gap between the expectations for high school graduation and the real world demands students face after completing high school.

The American Diploma Project (ADP) Network was formed in 2005 to help states close this gap and improve postsecondary...

Kati Haycock is one of the nation's leading child advocates in the field of education. She currently serves as President of The Education Trust. Established in '90, the Trust does what no other Washington-based education organization seeks to do: speaks up for what's right for young people, especially those who are poor or members of minority groups.

Abstract: Largely as a consequence of accountability policies, state and school districts are developing data systems that provide insight into issues associated with the effectiveness or productivity of U. S. education, as well as insight into those factors that promote effectiveness. Using the lens of organization theory and empirical results from a number of studies, this talk focuses on the likely effects of these data systems on the structure, the goals and the process of education -- the good, the bad and the ugly.

In this talk, an overview is provided for the goals of excellence and equity, tracing the societal conditions that gave rise to them and how they became entwined with the standards movement. Next, a step-by-step history of the events leading up to NCLB is offered, focusing on both the tension between national and local control and the maneuvering to resolve that tension. Then, the two overarching goals of excellence and equity are addressed again to consider whether they were accomplished and at what cost. Finally, a set of recommendations is offered for adjusting our standards-based...